National Aquarium Wholesale Supply announced today they have teamed with United Kingdom-based Evolution Aqua to distribute the company’s popular PURE filter media line to customers in the United States.

“The addition of Evolution Aqua’s PURE product line is an excellent fit for us,” said David King, Chief Operating Officer for NAWS. “Not only will our customers have access to Evolution Aqua’s excellent biofiltration and nutrient control products, we believe aligning our brand with a well-known innovator from across the pond is a great opportunity for NAWS to attract new clientele.”

The U.S. market is ripe with potential to grow the Evolution Aqua brand. According to a 2012 report by the American Pet Products Association, 62% of U.S. households own a pet and 42.3% of pet owners have a freshwater or saltwater fish tank.

NAWS, formally Bayside Aquarium Supply, rebranded itself in 2010 when the 10-year-old company launched a full-service website to give wholesalers 24/7 access to its 7,500 products. NAWS currently serves more than 2,400 wholesale customers, including brick and mortar pet stores, online retailers and aquarium and pond maintenance professionals in the U.S. and abroad.

“Evolution Aqua is delighted to have joined up with NAWS to help make its PURE range of products available to the U.S. fish keeper. Since its launch over three years ago, PURE has quickly become a must-have product for both the serious and amateur British fish keeper,” said Phil Jolly, Sales Director for Evolution Aqua. “PURE has become one of the best-selling lines with most major aquatic retailers throughout the UK. Our catch phrase ‘Have you tried it yet?’ is a question many aquarists are glad they can now answer ‘YES!’ to.”

The first retailer in the U.S. to carry the PURE product line is Inc. 5000 company MarineDepot.com. The well-known online aquarium supply destination is making a splash in social media by inviting aquarium hobbyists to post photos of their dirty aquariums on the company’s Facebook page. The owners of the five dirtiest aquariums will receive a box of Evolution Aqua’s PURE Marine to treat their tanks in what MarineDepot.com calls the PURE Marine Challenge.

“We were excited to test the PURE product line ourselves after reading an article about it earlier this year in Practical Fishkeeping,” said Ben Ros, Director of Operations for MarineDepot.com. “There were noticeable improvements in our office test tank after only a few days. We thought a neat way to get the word out would be to challenge other saltwater aquarium owners to improve their water quality by treating their tanks with it.”

Evolution Aqua has three PURE products available, each targeting a different aquatic biotope: freshwater aquariums, saltwater aquariums and outdoor ponds. The products themselves are essentially semi-transparent biodegradable balls (or “bio balls” as they are referred to by aquarium hobbyists) that consist of bacteria and enzymes which help maintain the biological equilibrium in closed aquatic environment s. They can also be used to recover the bacterial balance following a filter crash or to speed up the maturation process in new filters.

“We are quite proud of our new partnership with Evolution Aqua,” said King. “We expect our respective brands to grow tremendously in 2013 and beyond.”